is a liberal media on the way?

Looking back over the past three decades, the cost of the Left's complacency on media - i.e. its failure to create a reliable way to get important facts to the public and to counter the Right's propaganda machine - has been almost beyond calculation.

America's right-leaning media imbalance was a big reason why George W. Bush was able to misgovern the United States for eight years...

Conservatives have been complaining about the "liberal" media for nearly four decades, and the thought of a media environment that accurately portrays reality to the American public--rather than the current reflexively conservative one--has the wingnuts in full panic mode. Whatever will they do if liberal ideas are honestly presented to the public? How can the entire right-wing propaganda phalanx manage to counterbalance two liberals (Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow) on MSNBC every evening? How will they combat the mockery from Comedy Central?

The GOP's cries of terror over the (very unlikely) reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine are laughably overblown, and Anonymous Liberal notes that paranoia is "endemic to modern movement conservatism, whether or not the Republican party happens to be in power. It is a central feature of the conservative world view:"

The sad reality is that this kind of conspiratorial delusion is central to the worldview of most movement conservatives. It doesn't go away when they're in power and return when they're out of power. It's just there all the time.

One of AL's commenters writes, "I would have thought that the Republicans would welcome the Fairness Doctrine, given their constant whine about the 'liberal media:'"

You'd think that they'd be happy since, were it enacted, it would level the playing field for them. But the fact that they're whining about it indicates one of two things:

Both conclusions strike me as all-but-indisputable, although I don't anticipate a truly liberal media environment any time in the near future. (I wouldn't want media biased toward liberalism, but I'd love to see more solid and substantive reporting instead of the current sensationalistic shallowness that passes for news these days.)

I totally agree with your statement,
"I wouldn't want media biased toward liberalism, but I'd love to see more solid and substantive reporting instead of the current sensationalistic shallowness that passes for news these days."
I have great difficulty with news that makes the claim, "fair and balanced". That says to me that they are not telling me the news.

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This page contains a single entry by cognitivedissident published on November 21, 2008 11:50 PM.